


a picture says a thousand words

by smittentj



Category: Andi Mack (TV)
Genre: Also fluff, Art, Bad at tagging, Birthday Presents, Boys In Love, Confessions, Cuddling, Endgame, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, I Tried, M/M, One-Shot, SO MUCH FLUFF, a lot of fluff, author cannot tag, comforting cyrus, confessions in the form of gifts, cuddling in a bay window, hand holding, i am genuinely sorry for thinking i could write, i am sleep deprived, i can't tag, im a sucker for fluff, muffins uwu, nervous tj, oh but the captions are so fluffy uwu, omg the fluff, pining tj? i guess, pls tell me if this sucks also dont tell me, polaroids, romantic gifts, the swings are like magical, tj has an old soul ya know, tj is an aesthetic boy, tj is just a soft bean, tj just wants everything to be perfect for his man, tj shows up on his doorstep, uwu, we stan tyrus, what even is tagging honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-06
Updated: 2019-01-06
Packaged: 2019-10-05 12:29:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17325026
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smittentj/pseuds/smittentj
Summary: TJ uses a present to confess to Cyrus on his birthday.





	a picture says a thousand words

**Author's Note:**

> hi this is really fluffy and also probably horrible idk i'm insecure // comment for more?? // someone give me a prompt

It was 5:01pm on Cyrus’ fifteenth birthday, and TJ was sprinting up the boy’s driveway. Breathless from an excessive amount of running, he reached the door.

He stood in front of the Goodmans’ door for a moment, working up the nerve to ring the doorbell and giving himself a pep-talk. He reached into his bag for the sixth time over the course of an hour, again making sure he had Cyrus’ gift. In his hand, he held a boxed muffin. Chocolate chocolate chip, Cyrus’ favorite. 

Finally, he pressed the doorbell.

With his free hand, he anxiously pulled at the buttons of his shirt. Was he overdressed? He totally was. God. He wasn’t even inside and he had already ruined it. Cyrus was gonna close the door as soon as he saw the boy. Oh, God—

The door opened. 

“TJ?” It was Cyrus. He had a maroon polo shirt on, with the top button undone. He looked perfect. Well, he always did. Cyrus was still looking at him.

Oh. He should probably speak.

“Happy birthday, Cy,” he said, a small smile painted on his face.

“Do you wanna come in?”

Right. That would probably be the thing to do. 

The jock cleared his throat nervously.

“Yeah. Can we um...can we talk in private?”

“Yeah, yeah, of course. My room?”

“Sure.” 

Cyrus grabbed his hand. The older boy could feel every point of contact like a buzz of energy, as if his nerve endings had gone into hyperactivity. He was pulled up the stairs before Cyrus’ parents had the chance to get a word in.

The smaller boy dragged him into his room by his strong hand, closing the door behind him to give them more privacy. He sat TJ down on the bay window, immediately taken a seat beside him. 

“So, Teej. What did you want to talk about?”

“I thought it would be better to give you my gift when it was just us.” 

The taller boy fiddled with the buttons of his shirt nervously, his forehead sticky with sweat. When got up the nerve a few minutes later, he moved his hand down to grab the first present. He reached over to Cyrus, handing his friend the dessert.

He smiled shyly, handing it over. He coughed nervously as their fingers brushed ever so softly. He ducked his head in an attempt to hide the dusty pink that fell across his cheeks. 

“Your favorite,” he said, a flustered smile across his lips as the smaller boy let out a joyful gasp.

“TJ! Thank you, this is so sweet!” Cyrus squealed excitedly, setting the box down so he could save the muffin for later. He knew his stepmom wouldn’t want him eating upstairs, especially something with so many crumbs.

“There’s more,” the basketball player admitted. There was no going back now. “I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but I need you to see it.”

A hand grabbed his own so, so gently. A finger was under his chin, moving his face so he was looking up into the younger boy’s eyes. Cyrus spoke so softly, as if the slightest raise of a voice could scare off the blonde. 

“Teej.” Reassurance dripped in his voice. He continued. “I promise you, I will love anything you give me, because it’s you, because you put in effort.”

Cyrus gently squeezed the other boy’s hand, tracing circles into his palm. 

“Okay,” TJ whispered, his voice cracking slightly with nerves. 

With his free hand, the older boy reached into his gray Northface backpack, pulling out a wrapped box. He hesitantly moved forward to hand it to the birthday boy.

Cyrus gave him a tiny smile of reassurance before gently unwrapping the box, as if he was required to save the wrapping paper. 

When the brunette opened the box, he grinned the widest TJ had ever seen him grin. He looked up at a nervous TJ, who was recklessly biting his nails. The boy reached for TJ’s calloused hand, giving it a gentle squeeze before letting go.

In his hand, he held an album. A small book of polaroid photos. It was a blue grey colour, and on the cover was a picture of the two of them. 

Cyrus remembered that night, the night when the cover picture happened. He had gone to the jock’s house to watch his first horror movie. It had freaked him out, and every time a scary scene made its way onto the television, Cyrus had buried his face in TJ’s chest.

TJ never made fun of him that night. Not once.

He had wrapped Cyrus in his protective arms, whispered words of comfort, ran his fingers through the smaller boy’s brown locks.

The picture was of their intertwined hands. By the end of the movie night, their fingers had ended up twined. The picture seemed to be taken by an outside eye. 

He looked up at the older boy, his eyes filled with silent wonder. 

As if knowing his thoughts, the basketball answered the question laying at the tip of his tongue.

“Amber took that one after we fell asleep. The flash woke me up, and she gave it to me.”

Smiling so wide his face muscles ached, the shorter boy looked down at the photo, only to realize what he formerly hadn’t seen.

In the white space of the photo, the athlete had written a caption. The brown haired boy whispered the words scrawled across the space, a smile growing as his mind took in the hopeful words of the boy beside him. 

“I hope you feel it too.”

Although he had already figured out what was happening, he needed to know that he wasn’t dreaming. Looking up to find a flustered TJ, he moved toward the boy. 

The bay window was covered in pillows and blankets, and the taller boy was leaning against the corner wall, his back supported by a white pillow. Cyrus moved to lean against him. 

The smaller boy ended up on the inside, his back resting halfway on TJ’s chest. Blushing, the jock wrapped his arm around Cyrus’ shoulders and pulled him closer. 

With a dazed sigh, the younger boy drew his attention back to the album. Carefully, he flipped the book open, his thumb pressing lightly on the first page. 

Over his long friendship with TJ Kippen, he had found the blonde’s soft side, the part of him that was generally invisible to everyone else. The captain had began frequently bringing his uncle’s polaroid camera everywhere during their second year of friendship. 

The shorter boy had always been curious as to why his best friend had grown accustomed to snapping pictures of him at random points, and of them together at other points. 

It was very endearing, but he never got around to asking why it had become a habit for his friend; well, his more-than-friend. 

He understood why as he studied the first pictures.

The first image was of Cyrus laughing, chocolate chocolate chip muffin smeared across his face. He remembered that moment. TJ had bought him a muffin, only to start a food fight after the smaller boy had rubbed a tiny piece on the athlete’s nose and attempted to run away.

It was a given that the battle had not ended in Cyrus’ favor. He ended up laying on the grass, TJ nearly on top of him after playfully wrestling him to the ground. 

Cyrus looked down, laughing almost tearfully at the writing that captioned the memory. He could feel the older boy laugh against him as he read, and it was the best feeling in the world. 

“Blueberry Macadamia.”

The next two were of him laughing, the captions extremely and adorably cliche. However, it was the fourth photo that caught the brunette’s attention. 

It was an image of the two of them, a selfie. Cyrus’ arms were wrapped around TJ’s neck from behind him, and the two boys were laughing. It was clear that the older boy was giving him a piggyback ride. 

On the border, TJ had written a caption.

“Oblivious together.” 

Cyrus looked up at the basketball player, a soft smile plastered across his face. A soft “aw” escaped the smaller boy’s lips at the sweet gift TJ had worked so hard on. 

“Do you like it, Cy?” inquired the usually confident athlete, a blush hot across his cheeks. 

“Yes. And, I like you.” 

“Good, because I like you too.”

They stared at each other wordlessly for just a moment, surrounded in comfortable silence as their eyes spoke for them.

TJ spoke up playfully.

“As much as I would love to stare at you for the next two hours, Underdog, you gotta look at the rest of it.”

The shorter boy shoved him jokingly in return. 

“Fine, Not-So-Scary-Basketball-Guy.”

As they looked through the rest of the photos, the boys laughed, smiled, giggled, and joked around with each other. They remembered the sweet moments fondly, happy grins almost permanently on their faces. 

The last page caught Cyrus’ attention. He stared at it, a gasp quietly passing his lips as he studied the page, reading the words over and over. 

First, a picture of the younger boy, laughter erupting from him after what seemed to be a particularly funny joke from TJ. They were at the swings at sunset, watching the sky turn dark during one summer. 

Next, a picture of them. The two both had giant smiles painted across their lips. The younger boy remembered this. He had stolen the athlete’s camera, and snapped a photo when TJ finally caught him.

After that was a picture of the swings, no one on them. It was during a sunrise, after a rain. Cyrus remembered all the summer mornings when they would wake up early and sit on the rocks, watching the sky brighten. The grass was shining in the growing morning light, and it was gorgeous. 

The final picture was perhaps the best Cyrus had ever seen. 

“That one’s my favorite,” the jock whispered behind Cyrus’ ear.

The photo was taken on the rocks. Cyrus remembered it well. After some drama with Jonah, the two had gone to the park and sat by the pond. The younger boy had seen that TJ needed some comfort, and he had linked their pinkies together. 

The taller boy had just looked at him for a moment, and moved their hands to rest on his leg. The image was of their pinkies, looped lightly around each other.

And then, the brunette read the captions. Each one was a word or a couple words, and they partnered together in a chain to form a sentence.

Cyrus let out a tearful laugh as he read TJ’s words.

“Always…”

“...Remember…”

“...How Much…”

“...I Love You.”

Cyrus melted. He moved his hand up to wipe a happy tear away from his cheek. He looked up shyly at the athlete, a smile so wide on his face that he doubted he would ever be able to stop smiling. 

The older boy was flustered, his eyes sparkling as he looked down nervously. 

Cyrus sniffled, laughing softly at the tearful mess he was. Gently, he moved his hand to tilt the other boy’s chin so they were looking into each other’s eyes. 

They leaned forward, almost in slow motion. 

Cyrus left a sweet, lingering kiss on TJ’s soft lips. When they pulled away, Cyrus spoke to the athlete. 

“I love you too.”

Cyrus would always remember it as the best birthday ever.

**Author's Note:**

> leave a kudo and comment and also don't hate me too much for this ik im horrible at writing // GIVE ME PROMPTS PLEASE


End file.
